As for why Bert's black spots look a little pale here, it's because he's recently been dusted with food grade diatomaceous earth to help against ticks and fleas. What's interesting is that the dogs and cats like to be dusted. When little Molly Doodlebug is chewing and scratching, a heavy dusting of diatomaceous earth makes her immediately stop and relax. You can read about the many other ways we use this totally natural, wonderful stuff around the farm and garden here.

10 comments:

So funny! I bet that was very entertaining. I use the food grade DE on my pets, too. I take it myself in my juice in the morning, and the pups get a teaspoon in their food. I don't use toxic chems, so the DE works nicely for us. I sprinkle it out onto their beds from a powdered sugar shaker. Haha I was so happy when my auntie introduced me to it.Hope Bert gets a chase soon. : )

I keep meaning to tell you that these posts with lots of animal photos have saved me many a time with Cubby. When he gets really bored and fussy being inside because it's raining or whatever, I say, "Do you want to look at some pictures?" And he runs right over to the laptop to look at photos of your sheep and dogs.

Hi Everybody,Thanks for the comments. So glad you enjoyed these photos.

T,Diatomaceous earth is amazing stuff, isn't it? We've probably gone through at least 1,000 pounds over the years, and I'm still finding new ways to use it.

Jan,Molly Doodlebug spends 99% of her time indoors, and I guess she does shake some of the DE off of her. Of course she's living in The Shack, so we don't notice all that much. ;)

Last year, when we were having awful trouble with fleas (for the first time ever) we actually sprinkled it on the hardwood floors in the living room and in the kitchen. And a lot of people, like T. mentioned above, dust their pets' beds with it.

It's extremely fine powder and is easy to vacuum back up, but if your house is perfectly spic and span, you probably wouldn't want the mess.

If the critters go outside, you could do the dusting outdoors and let them shake it off before they come back in the house.

It does work great on chickens for mites! Or so I've heard - we thankfully don't have that problem. You can dust the chickens with it, or if they use a certain spot for dust baths, sprinkle some DE on the spot and let them dust themselves.

We also feed it to the chickens - and to all the other farm critters, and ourselves. :)

Hi Erin,It is best to avoid getting diatomaceous earth dust in your eyes or lungs, although I've inhaled plenty of it over the years while emptying the 50 pound bags into our storage container, etc.

When I dust the animals, I avoid their head and usually cover their eyes and mouth, either with my hand or a piece of cloth.

Even with the slight risk, I feel much better about covering the critters with something that's so benign rather than dousing them with toxic poisons, which is what most flea/tick treatments are made from. I totally avoid them because personally I think they're scary. DE, on the other hand, is wonderful stuff! :)

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